[JURIST Election Special] Live early returns on the California Secretary of State's election website indicate that all three of the Propositions we're tracking are on their way to passage. Here's the latest breakdown based on almost 4% of precincts reporting:66 3 Strikes Limits 580,348 56.9 441,312 43.1 69 DNA Samples
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[JURIST Election Special] Californians have been voting today on a series of Propositions. Of particular legal significance are Propositions 66 (imposing limits on the state's three strikes law - see background from the League of Women Voters), 69 (DNA sample collection - background), and 71 (bonds for stem cell reseearch
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[JURIST Election Special] 11:07 PM ET - AP is reporting that Republicans have retained control over the US Senate, with at least 50 of the seats going to the GOP. Reports also have Democrat John Kerry taking California as expected, while George Bush has collected Idaho.
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[JURIST Election Special] 11:00 PM ET - Polls have closed in California, Hawaii, western Idaho, western North Dakota, western Oregon and Washington, leaving only Alaska residents still casting ballots.11:15 PM ET - Rather than challenges to voters arising, a major issue cropping up today appears to be a shortage of
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[JURIST Election Special] 10:55 PM ET - Multiple news services are projecting that voters in Colorado have defeated Amendment 36, which would have redistributed that state's 9 electoral votes on a split proportional basis according to popular vote. The defeat of the Amendment avoids litigation that would likely have followed
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[JURIST Election Special] 10:53 PM ET - NBC News has called Arizona and its 10 electoral votes for President Bush, while it has awarded Pennsylvania, with its 21 votes, to John Kerry. The tally stands at 203 for Bush to Kerry's 133.
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[JURIST Election Special] 10:35 PM ET - The major swing states remain up in the air as results continue to be tallied. Major networks continue to point to Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania as being the keys to the outcome of the election.Florida, with 74% of precincts reporting, stands at:Bush -
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[JURIST Election Special] With the latest set of poll closings at 10 PM ET, here's a brief rundown of the major ballot issues newly in play:Montana is voting on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage (CI-96 - Montana Pride is opposed; the Montana Family Foundation supports) and another to
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[JURIST Election Special] 10:05 PM ET - AP is reporting that Montana and Utah have both gone to President Bush, giving him eight more electoral votes. At this point, no surprises have occurred, with declared states all going in the expected direction. No swing states have been decided thus far.10:20
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[JURIST Election Special] 10 PM ET - Polls have closed in eastern Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, eastern North Dakota, eastern Oregon and Utah, bringing voting to a close in 43 states. Returns continue to trickle in from Florida, with President Bush maintaining a gap over John Kerry. With more than
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[JURIST Election Special] Voters in Colorado are considering Amendment 36, on whether to change the state's system for allocating presidential electoral votes from a winner-take-all system to a proportional system. As reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, last week the proposal survived a court challenge to its constitutionality. CNN has results
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[JURIST Election Special] In Alabama, voters considered an amendment that would remove from the state constitution language on segregated schools, the right to an education, and poll taxes. Read background on the amendment. With the first two Alabama precincts reporting, there are 537 votes in favor of the amendment, 469
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[JURIST Election Special] 9:05 PM ET - AP is projecting that Bush wins in Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, while Kerry has taken New York, Rhode Island.9:30 PM ET - Louisiana and Mississippi have been added to the Bush column. CBS News has Bush at 171 and
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[JURIST Election Special] 8:30 PM ET - The polls have just closed in Arkansas. Kerry has an electoral college lead over Bush 77-66 based on projections, but Bush is leading Kerry in the critical states of Florida and Ohio. If Kerry loses both of those, he may well lose the
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[JURIST Election Special] 8:02 PM ET - AP is projecting Bush wins in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. AP is projecting Kerry wins in Delaware, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. These projections swing the electoral college vote to Kerry for the first time tonight, 77
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[JURIST Election Special] 7:45 PM ET - ABC News is projecting that Ohio's proposed constiutional amendment banning gay marriage will pass. The Cincinnati branch of the League of Women Voters has background on Issue 1 here. The text of the amendment reads:Be it Resolved by the People of the State
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[JURIST Election Special] 7:30 PM ET - The polls have now closed in Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia. In Ohio, long lines at polling places prompted last-minute calls by Democrats for polling workers to hand out paper ballots. Line waits in some counties were up to five hours. The
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[JURIST Election Special] 7:00 PM ET - The polls are now closed in most of Florida, and in the rest of Indiana, the rest of Kentucky, Georgia, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia. In Kentucky now, 20% of the precincts are reporting:Bush/Cheney (R) 213,062 53% Kerry/Edwards (D) 184,940 46%New
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[JURIST Election Special] Here's a sampling of key state constitutional amendments, ballot initiatives and referenda on the ballot in today's general election.Eleven states are voting on constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage. Proposed amendments in Mississippi [PDF - all links to proposal text or background], Montana and Oregon refer only
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[JURIST Election Special] Good evening and welcome to JURIST's special live election coverage of the 2004 election.6:00 PM ET - The polls are now closed in eastern Kentucky and most of Indiana. There, as in the nation at large, voter turnout has been heavy. Voters in Indiana encountered long lines
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[JURIST] US soldier Charles Robert Jenkins, accused of defecting to North Korea, is scheduled to face court-martial on Wednesday. Jenkins, who disappeared in 1965 while on active duty in South Korea, has lived in North Korea for 39 years without ever explaining the circumstances on how he got there. He
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[JURIST] The Supreme Court today heard arguments in Johnson v. California (case summary from Duke Law School), a racial segregation case, involving the constitutionality of black California inmates being bunked together for months at a time, with the purpose of keeping prisons safe. At issue is an unwritten California policy
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[JURIST] Zacarias Moussaoui's lawyers, in a written motion, indicated that they will ask the trial judge to postpone bringing the case to trial while they attempt to appeal pretrial issues to the Supreme Court. The lawyers are attempting to gain direct access to three al-Qaeda prisoners who would help Moussaoui's
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[JURIST] British MPs voted Tuesday against a ban on smacking children in England and Wales, opting instead for a compromise amendment that criminalizes hitting that leaves marks or causes mental harm. The outright ban, opposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair, was reject by a 424-75 vote. Proponents of the ban
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[JURIST] In Tuesday's corporations and securities brief, Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications Inc. announced a resolution over disputes arising from airwaves and trademark names. Under the agreement, Nextel will swap airwaves worth as much as $4.86 billion and allow Verizon Wireless to use the push-to-talk name that has been used
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[JURIST] The Florida Democratic Party has challenged an emergency ruling by Secretary of State Glenda Hood that set procedures for recounting votes [PDF] cast on touch-screen machines, alleging that Hood abused her power in issuing the ruling. The case involving the Oct. 15 ruling is before the FL Supreme Court
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[JURIST] Lawyers for former US chess champion Bobby Fischer appeared in a Japanese court Tuesday in their latest effort to prevent Fischer's deportation to the US. Fischer is wanted in the US for playing a 1992 chess match in Yugoslavia in violation of international sanctions. Fischer's lawyers appeared in court
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[JURIST] Opening statements in the court-martial of Maj. Clarke Paulus could begin as early as Tuesday afternoon. Paulus is charged with assault, dereliction of duty and maltreatment in the death of an Iraqi prisoner who died while in US custody. Charges arising out of the incident were initially brought against
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[JURIST] A New York judge has refused to combine former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski's retrial on larceny charges with his trial on charges that he failed to pay sales taxes on art worth $13 million. New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus declined to combine the trials because the larceny
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[JURIST] Moscow's Meshchansky Court Tuesday adjourned the trial of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky (BBC profile) until November 9 after hearing testimony from about 80 prosecution witnesses. Earlier this week, the Russian court granted a request by the state prosecutor and prolonged Khodorkovsky's custody term until February 14. Khodorkovsky's personal
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[JURIST] Saddam Hussein's wife and three daughters have sacked Jordanian lawyer Muhammad Rashdan, saying they cannot continue to work together after a disagreement. Other members of Saddam's defense team have said that Rashdan went to the Iraqi Special Tribunal, without the rest of the defense team, seeking power of attorney.
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[JURIST] The US Third Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a stay of an order [PDF] issued yesterday by New Jersey District Judge Dickinson Debevoise. Judge Debevoise ruled that the Republican National Committee cannot use a list of 35,000 names (later reduced to 23,000 names) to challenge voters at the
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[JURIST] Closing arguments began Monday in the criminal case against two men accused of planning the 1985 Air India passenger jet bombing. The two men, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, are charged with first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and placing bombs on an aircraft, among other
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[JURIST] A split panel of the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed two lower court rulings early Tuesday, holding that the Ohio Republican Party can place people at polling stations to challenge the eligibility of voters. Two Ohio federal judges had ruled Monday that challengers could not be present
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[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Tuesday, Nov. 2Voters across the US go to the polls today for the 2004 election. JURIST's Paper Chase will keep on eye on the voting during the day and will provide continuous live coverage
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